Saturday, September 27, 2008

Today we went to cheer for one of our favorite little guys and one of Bekah's best buddies, Jake! He is in soccer for the first time this fall and we were excited to see him in his Blue Lightning Blues!

Bekah and her friend . They are 8 weeks apart in age and about a foot apart in height. :)

Friday, September 26, 2008

The terrible two's. The past month or so it has been very apparent that our little Anna is fast approaching the stage that is fondly (and not so fondly) referred to as the "TERRIBLE TWO'S!" I remember this stage with Bekah as, simply exhausting! Yesterday, after I met my friend Riva for a stroll through Target and lunch at Wendy's, my arms were aching from trying to contain my Anna.

Our sweet little blondie has taken to the stop, drop and tantrum routine and while I am not condoning it (at all), it does give me reason to laugh at times. (There are those other times when it makes me want to cry. When moments like this happen in public, it makes me want to crawl under the nearest rock.)

As I watch her in the moment of anger progressing from sweet angel, to frustrated, and then to frantic , I literally see her little mind working, processing how she can get what she wants. And the most hilarious thing about it, is she can turn it off at the flip of switch. If I walk away from her she will get up, follow and then lay back down and start again. (When she thinks you are watching again.) You see, Anna has not caught onto the fact that : SHE WILL NOT WIN! :) She will learn in time. In the mean time we might see a few more "demonstrations" of an almost-two- year-old's temper.

Ok, I will admit it seems a little cruel to take a picture of your child during ,what appears to be a moment of distress. But, alas, I will remind you that she can quickly turn off the antics. As soon as I stopped taking pictures and walked away from her she sat back up and went on playing. Ahhh.... hopefully this phase will pass quickly!

oh and in case you were wondering why she was throwing a fit:

She wanted to hold MOMMY's cup of water by herself instead of that "awful" sippy cup she was offered. COMPLETE INJUSTICE!

The Lord has blessed me with two little girls not lacking in the personality department. There is no denying that my days are full of the many moods of girls ( I know you are all feeling sorry for Josh, right about now as he has ME added to the mix). :) But as the old saying goes..... " Girls are full of sugar and spice..." I think moments like these definitely qualify as the "spice" part.

Rebekah loves crafts! She jumps at any chance she gets to be creative. Our local Wal-Mart is under a major remodel. They have tables and tables of clearance items and a lot of it is craft stuff. They got rid of the fabric section :( and they are making way for Martha Stewart. While I love Martha as much as any other craft addict it just seems kind of sad that all crafts are now coming pre-packaged with directions. Where is the creativity?

Anyways back to the point of the post...they had a box of of PERLER beads. You remember those don't you? The ones where you put them on a pegged board and then iron the shape so it melts together. Well, I remember them. These little things were a staple craft when I worked at day cares throughout my college days. Bekah ,at first, was not that enthused until we ironed the first one and then she was hooked. She sat at the coffee table for 2 hours making little........ well...... "shapes". :) She loves them! And mommy is excited because it only cost me $3.00!

Yay for CRAFT TIME!

Here she is with one of her final creations. This one kind of looks like the continent of Africa, so we'll just say that is what it is. My child is so culturally diverse.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Tonight we went to the DODGERS vs. PADRES game. My Dad is a devoted Padres fan and I will admit that my loyalty and love for him is so BIG it even includes being a fan of his favorite team! So tonight was somewhat conflicting for me. The Padres didn't have a great season..... OK! They had a TERRIBLE season. The game tonight was at Dodgers Stadium and I will just openly say I am somewhat afraid of cheering for the opposing team when surrounded by very eager and pumped up LA fans. And I don't have anything against the Dodgers. Furthermore, while I enjoy baseball to a certain degree, I attend games more for the people watching and treat eating rather than actually watching the game. So I can say that in my heart I am a Padres fan but when you can't beat 'um........ join 'um, which means tonight we were SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BASEBALL FANS. So yay for the Dodgers and hopefully the Padres will have a better season next year. :)

Here is Bekah telling me that... "THE GAME IS STARTING!!!!" (even though it wasn't)

Another fun thing: Rebekah made a grand appearance on the jumbo-tron! It was so cool. She had to call grandpa and tell him she was on TV!

She was thrilled to get high fives from all the other people sitting around us and seeing as she is not one to shy away from the spot light she was eating up every minute of her 10 seconds of fame!

Anna was quite the wiggle worm and I am thinking that the cotton candy she ate only made the wiggle syndrome worse. :) She had a good time. But by the 6th inning mommy had had enough of the squirming and we headed home.

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of little giggles coming from the girls' bedroom. I went in and what should I find, but this....

When I took the picture above. They didn't know I was in the room. So I grabbed the edge of the blanket, lifted it up and quickly snapped a picture of their response....

They were rolling in laughter! (FYI: Bekah has her own bed and it isn't a crib.)

For the time being, my girls love sharing a room and I couldn't be more pleased. For one it allows us to use our 3rd bedroom as a playroom and for another I see daily how my girls are growing closer and closer. They truly are GREAT together. We do have our share of spats but they are far outweighed by the giggles, and squeals of delight. What a pair.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Several weeks ago Rebekah went on a special outing with my in-laws which left me with one little girl. Anna was quite distraught to see her sister leave and it took her a little while to calm down once Bekah left. While Anna has her little blankets that bring her comfort and she likes being with Mommy and Daddy, there is NO denying that REBEKAH is the main security blanket in Anna's life. If Bekah is doing it, she wants to do it. If Bekah is staying she wants to stay, and if Bekah is going she wants to go. She loves her big sis.

After Bekah left, Anna kept saying her name. She dragged me into her room and pointed at Bekah's bed and said "Bepa". Then we got in the car to go to the grocery store and she pointed to the seat next to hers and in a sad little voice, "Bepa, Bepa". Then (this is where I started getting a little sad myself) we got to the carts at the store and she pointed to the area in the cart where Bekah normally sits and she said "Bepa, Bepa....... Mommy, Bepa." I totally thought Anna and I were going to have a quiet morning with just the two of us, I guess I didn't realize that for Anna...... LIFE IS only with "Bepa."

This is Anna when she woke up from her nap only to find that Bekah was home and she was willing to share her happy meal toy! You think she was happy!? :)

Today the girls and I had a lunch date with some very dear ladies. One of those ladies, especially, holds a very special place in my heart. When we moved to Norwalk, CA in 1986 our next door neighbor was a wonderful woman named Myrna Peterson. In addition to her being our neighbor, she was also a member of our church. I have many special memories of enjoying Danish cookies and visiting with our wonderful neighbor. Anyone who knows Myrna would say she defines the term "fountain of youth". Even today she was talking about climbing up on the counter of her kitchen to reach something high. YIKES! Our luncheon today was to celebrate Myrna's 95th birthday! (YEP 9-5!) In her 95 years of life Myrna has seen an ever changing world, her share of joys and, indeed, sadness and yet she has sought the Lord through it all. She is a great example of perseverance, friendship, service and faith. She is Danish through and through and has such wonderful stories about her upbringing on a farm in Nebraska. As we sat around the table today, I listened to her and the other women share different stories and pearls of wisdom and was humbled when I thought about how little I know and how much I have to learn. I am so thankful for the chance to sit and listen, to learn and to glean from such amazing women of God.

So today for lunch I had a wonderful sandwich, a cup of soup and a beautiful slice of wisdom pie. :)

Happy Birthday Myrna!

Here the girls are enjoying their chocolate pie.( By the way Myrna is famous for her pies! In 95 years she has definitely perfected the art of pie making and that includes the perfect meringue. We had to settle for Marie Calendars today, but seeing as the girls have never had Myrna's pies they didn't know that there is actually something called BETTER pie !)

Here are the girls with Myrna.

Below: My mom with Myrna, Carol, Rita and Gloria. (I have known all of these women since I was in Kindergarten and they are all very precious to me. How blessed I am.)

This morning as I was making my bed and getting dressed, Bekah ran into my room to ask...

"Mommy, can I have chocolate TOO?"

In a moment of distraction I replied.... "NO! You can't have chocolate for breakfast!"..... then it clicked in...... "What do you mean 'TOO'?"

I quickly went on an ANNA hunt and found her crouched in her room covered in chocolate (hands, face and jammies). The ottoman to the rocker smeared with chocolate and the remainder of the chocolate and wrappers surrounding her. She looked up at me with that "UH- OH..... I've been caught" look and then tried to shove as much chocolate into her mouth as she could. She KNEW it was her LAST bite!

In the heat of the moment I grabbed her, grabbed the candy (before the dog could finish it off) and proceeded to clean her up. Now that I have had a moment to clean up and restore peace I think the messiness would have made for cute pictures. But I figure, I have shown you enough pictures with Anna and food on her face so you could probably come up with a pretty accurate mental vision of the moment. :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

This is what has been taking over my life, as of recently. (Ok maybe "taking over my life" is a little extreme but you get the point.) This year I have taken a more active role in our Mothers of Preschoolers group at our church. And today was our first meeting! I have to give glory to the Lord for His faithfulness in bringing so many new women into our group and also uniting a wonderful leadership team. I am blown away by the talents of the women serving in the MOPS ministry. After lots of hours on the computer, countless phone calls and emails, a completely used ink cartridge, plenty of glue sticks, a few road blocks and several planning meetings we officially kicked off our "MOPS year" this morning!

And if today was any indication of what the rest of the year will look like...... WE HAVE GREAT THINGS AHEAD! Praise be to GOD!

For those moms with toddlers... If you are interested in finding out more about MOPS and it's mission or even finding a MOPS group in your area I am including a link. Even if you aren't in a group the MOPS website can be a great resource for moms.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Both of our girls LOVE being in the water. Bekah is getting more and more "able" in the pool these days. Here is a little video of her showing of her aquatic skills while in Oceanside this past weekend.

Today is Josh's 30th birthday! Last night family and friends joined me in surprising him with party when he came home from work! And we really did surprise him! He didn't have a clue! We are so blessed to have wonderful family and friends who were so willing to help make Josh's 30th birthday one to remember!

Last weekend when we were in Oceanside we received a call from my sister, Donna. She called to tell us.... she is ENGAGED!!!!!!

Donna and Philip make a wonderful couple and we are so excited to welcome Philip into the family! Congratulations you guys.... we can't wait to see all that the Lord has for you and pray for you both as you begin this journey together.

Now that I have a chance to sit down.... I can tell you about what we've been up to lately.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to spend 4 days with the Nelson side of the family in Oceanside. Josh's parents have a timeshare there and the "Presidential Suite" made for a lovely place to get away, roomy enough for 6 kids and 6 adults. I think we had the best view in the place! It was an action packed weekend. We started off with a V.I.P tour of the San Diego Zoo where we got up close and personal with a tiger, giraffe, okapis and a few other annimals. We went on the girls first train ride, swam in the pool, did crafts, went to the beach and dinner on the pier, and finished our trip off with a repeat visit to Sea World! WHEW! What a weekend! Here is a little slide show...

this is my life...

I am married to Superman and a stay-at-home/homeschooling mom to our 4 crazies.I've been redeemed and am a complete work in progress... learning daily to lean on my Savior. With the blessing of each new day... I am and always will be seeking to... "Remember Jesus."